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China Readies New Launch Center for Next Space Lab Mission
3 April 2014
(LPAC)—Operating against a deadline and some schedule pressure, China is planning to initiate rocket launches soon from its brand-new spaceport at Wenchang on Hainan Island. This new facility is needed to support the larger launch vehicle required to orbit its next space laboratory, Tiangong-2, scheduled for 2015. The Wenchang Launch Center has been under construction since 2009 with launch pads for the medium-lift Long March-7 (LM-7) vehicle, and the larger, heavy-lift Long March 5. (As problems caused delays in the LM-5 rocket, the Chinese skipped ahead to the LM-7 designation to first develop a smaller rocket). Tiangong-2 will be heavier than its predecessor, and requires at least the medium-lift, and as yet, untested, LM-7 rocket. A Chinese cargo ship, Tianzhou, will fly in 2016, to resupply the Tiangong-2 space module. The Wenchang Launch Center was recently described by Gregory Kulacki, a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and lived and worked in China for much of the past 25 years. A new launch site with access that did not require overland transportation of larger rockets, made an island location ideal. In addition, Kulacki explains, Hainan island is referred to as "China’s Hawaii," and the facility is being built to be "equivalent to the Kennedy Space Center," with public exhibits, and a space-related theme park. This is in stark contrast to China’s other launch sites, which were designed initially to accomodate military vehicles, with appropriate security measures. The openness of the new launch complex also emphasizes China’s push for increased international cooperation in space. The heavy-lift Long March 5 is needed for carrying components to orbit for China’s planned multi-module space station, in 2018 or so. But national security professor at the Naval War College, Joan Johnson-Freese, told space.com that the new launch facility, and the more capable rockets, also allow for more ambitious future missions, such as interplanetary probes, and human missions to the Moon. [Marsha G. Freeman] |